Flight of a Glider

This Demonstration shows the flight path of a glider, depending on the initial velocity of the plane, its release angle, and the plane's drag coefficient . The flight is governed by Lanchester's system of autonomous nonlinear differential equations:

,

,

where is the velocity of the plane at a given time and is the angle between the horizontal and the plane at time . The plot shows the distance traveled versus the height of the plane above the ground.